We’ve made it through the busiest month of the year and arrive in a more leisurely-paced May. This New Moon drops us into our five senses and encourages us to delight in them. Time to get better acquainted with your updated starting point for delight. Do you engage in healthy conversation with your personal desires, or is it more like a Jenga tower, stacked haphazardly, hoping it won’t all collapse?
Here’s the good news: Saturn supports healthy self-expression this Moon Cycle. It’s the ‘just right’ sweet spot of Moons. Of course, there is always a little work to do when such bounty is offered. With Uranus just ahead of the Sun and New Moon, we have to let go of ‘what is’ to create ‘what’s next’. Like a trapeze artist, you have to trust your skill, trust your partner, and then let go to fly. This highlights the process of cleaning out who and what we trust.If you find it hard to take flight, it might be because doubts about yourself, others, or even the Universe are weighing you down. Let’s start with self-doubt. Remember, it’s not about always ‘getting it right’, but about making decisions based on what truly feels right for you in this moment, with your whole heart.
Our bodies give us so much good information; they have a harder time lying to us. Which is why we go back to the basics of what do you want? See your desires through more innocent eyes. This is a place that sees deeply, down to the wound at the base of bad behavior. See what was judged and wound up twisted and scarred. There is a unique expression of those original desires that needs your curiosity and attention. Your senses help steer you into authenticity. Then we get to anchor and expand personal expression one choice at a time. Do it from the present, not the past or the future. Hint: this is where you let go of the rung you’ve been perched on and fly onward to the next place to land.
Prepare to explore more of what you want; then take the next step and connect and express it to the world. You will meet resistance. When you do, go within. It’s natural evolution, so let it inform you. Discard whatever puts you in adversarial mode. That’s a detour that puts the focus outside of you. Others can give you information to help you locate distress inside of you rather than wasting energy battling outside of you. As we fly forward, some of what’s familiar gets left behind. So do needless disputes.
Be sure to bring any patience you have along with you. It’s not a quick or easy transition because your authentic self-expression may disrupt things in the present. Here’s the tricky part: where can shared values move people out of conflict even when behavior is not yet cohesive? In other words, disagreement isn’t bad; in fact, it encourages deeper exploration. Conflict is when you demonize what is different. Get back to the bedrock of shared values and go from there.
We’ve focused more narrowly on the self for a while as Jupiter prepared to shift to Gemini. That shift begins a couple of days ahead of this New Moon and helps turn our eyes to who shares our values. This is not just updated tribalism, it’s ground level starting points. These emerging groups don’t all necessarily see or do things the same. They just need to share updated core values. From there, these dynamic building block groups help us explore how to both stand out and belong in a way only we can do. It’s your learning pod. So find yours and delight waits with them. As do difficulties, so don’t second guess your choice. The Cards and Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
5/7 Taurus New Moon – The World: Limits to A Limit
Everyone has an equal opportunity to express their budding gifts, talents, ideas, and dreams. This Taurus New Moon is ruled by Venus, who brings harmony and attraction to the emerging picture. Saturn lends a helping hand, too, but Venus definitely runs the show. That matters because Saturn helps us feel responsible for owning our personal desires. Yet there are limits, even to our limits.
Mars just moved out of Pisces, where the illumination of the eclipses lit up a pathway but left Mars swimming in the dark as to how to achieve what it saw. In Aries, however, it picks up speed and direction. In fact, one of the key words for Mars this month is “decide.” When you decide on an action, it narrows you down to one option and screens out others, at least for the moment.
But there is no guarantee that the action you choose will have the results you want. Which brings you to the next decision: what needs tweaking, the actions or the path? This process is meant to build your trust in making decisions. Guess what? There is no right answer. There isn’t any existing system with a better answer, although plenty of places offer shelter from uncertainty if you trade in your individuality. Nope, there is just trial and error on deck right now. Be open and you can cobble together multiple pieces from several systems. You have to feel your way. It’s tempting to doubt or let others dissect what didn’t work. But why not reexamine that process, too? What if the limit you remove is the one that says failure to get specific results means it failed?
The World card speaks to a whole new way of life. It reminds you that you have everything you need, whether or not you have all you want. When you beat yourself up for any perceived failures, it puts the brakes on expansion. Notice if your brain detours you there. The wound is still freshly tender after the eclipse lit it up. This is so we learn how to care for ourselves, accept the good and the not-so-good about ourselves. We don’t always get it right. Sometimes it feels like we never get it right. When that happens, you have to change the definition of right rather than increase pressure to perform. Mark out smaller milestones and celebrate the achievements.
So limit your inner critic, insist they look for opportunities as well as losses. Make it a point to compare only as a means to dare yourself to achieve your own version of what others accomplish. As you expand, focus on what feels good and include enough of that to balance struggles over performance anxieties. It’s only when you can face your own shortcomings or limits and accept them that your power safely emerges with the acknowledgment. To deny them is to drop you back into a powerless place. Trust there’s more to you than what doesn’t work yet. So use Venus and the attractor factor to populate this New World around you this New Moon.
5/8 Strength: Course Corrections
The Moon tangles with Uranus, the Great Awakener, before dawn. Don’t be surprised if you literally have trouble sleeping. When it meets Jupiter around 9:30 am, it’s inescapable—something changes. It may be small, but it’s still significant. Seize the moment to be very present, free of any story, and use it like a blank page. Write a new chapter. You get to decide what to do about whatever presents itself. More than that, you can decide how you feel about it first. When you have no story about what is in front of you, there is just that blank page for you to write on the way that you want.
The Moon trines Pluto after dinner to help us feel up to the task at hand. More than a doer, first, be a decider. Once you choose how to define what you feel and want, you know better how to go about connecting with that desire. It leaves energy to finesse your actions so that even when they disrupt, they do it in a constructive way rather than destructive. In fact, it invites others to join you in unexpected expressions that lead to unimagined outcomes. When you leave it open, it allows for results that can exceed your dreams, if you have the strength to hold center in the face of uncertainty. The Strength card reminds us we already have it. Just locate yours, balance the tension, and let the Universe meet you like the next rung on a trapeze.
5/9 Prince of Cups: Tempered Advances
The Moon and Mars meet up today to help us decide to take action. Something, somewhere requires that we act on behalf of what we want. A word, a gesture, however small, moves things forward. But surprise, there are obstacles on this path. It doesn’t matter what path you choose; they will be there. Because obstacles help us sort out impulse from true desire. When we want something and are willing to overcome whatever blocks us, we bond with the object of our affection. The Knight of Cups signals creative or romantic progress forward.
This progress is both internal and external. While others can encourage or spur us to action, only we know whether we really want to do what’s necessary to get where we wish to be. This is learning to sort out those fleeting attractions from the rooted longings. Besides, obstacles help inspire creative approaches. We learn about ourselves when we test our strength on behalf of our heart. So let challenges and detours teach you more about yourself and what matters today. Little or big, they offer you a chance to know yourself better. What a marvelous gift, right?
5/10 The Chariot: Success At What Price?
This card promises victory but cautions against forcing your will on others to succeed. A Mars/Uranus dust-up pits our past experience of what a win means against the evolving you now. We have a win/lose dynamic well embedded in our society. However, the landscape today presents a unique challenge. It’s not an equal match-up. Information is missing or muddy. It’s hard to get a clear sense of what is going on, which is why rushing to action works against you. When you have more insight, your choice of where you want to be in the picture may shift entirely.
A better path is to practice inventory of the situation. Take information in and be willing to wait for the rest of it to emerge. Sometimes, a win is not acting on things prematurely. Or maybe it’s in asking questions in a thoughtful way. Dig deeper where you can. See the whole picture and acknowledge that there are things you don’t know yet. In the absence of more information, what’s the best course of action for you now? There is wisdom in this type of approach that serves you well. Practice adding it to your toolkit.
5/11 Death: Slow Inevitable Change
We face the slow, inevitable end to defining courage as beating an opponent. Instead, we are moving into the deep understanding that conflict is there inside of us. When we resolve the warring parts in our own heads and hearts, the battles outside of us fall away. There is nothing to fight. In the last few hundred years, we measured strength, courage, power by the ability to defeat or win against opponents. We’ve taken our internal struggle, projected it out onto others, and labeled them as justified battle. Good triumphs over evil. As Mercury meets up with Eris, Ruler of Discord, we see how that plays out in our lives.
And, that clear-cut, black and white definition is evolving. We haven’t arrived at the next choice, and that can be unnerving. Part of us wants that absolute label by which to navigate life. A better use of your efforts is to find what within you is disconnected from your original desires and a healthy expression of them.Society applied rules to help maintain the shape of the known world as we grew. Now we are in a time that takes us back to individuation. So the old way of seeing things is ending.
The Death card represents winter, where the leaves fall off the tree and things appear bare. But deep inside, down in the roots, there is a riot of life happening. When you find yourself opposing a person, place, or idea, get quiet. Give it space even if it isn’t one that resonates with you. Everything has a function. You just don’t know that function yet for what bothers you. So use it to help resolve inner tensions and prepare for your personal budding when the time is right. Just know that you will in perfect time.
5/12 Nine of Pentacles: Mastering What Is
The Cancer Moon receives both help and challenge throughout the day. The challenges serve to move us out of feeling at the mercy of life and into a creative space instead. But you may be tempted to sit down and sulk a bit. Go ahead and give yourself ten minutes of indulgence. Sometimes we need a little mothering to comfort those stinging moments. Ten minutes is roughly the time it takes for molecules of emotion to travel our nervous system. So, put ten minutes on the clock and let those feelings roll. What a release, right?
Once you do that, the Sun and Uranus support that tender Cancer Moon and give you a push to try a fresh approach. Defensiveness is contraction, while creativity is expansion. Choose wisely where you want to go and then do it. Watch out for the sneaky discontent that may creep in by evening, trying once again to derail your opening up. If it can pick apart your choice or results, expansion halts, or at least slows to a crawl. But if you acknowledge what’s happening and keep the steering wheel in hand, you get some confirmation that the new direction has promise, even if it hasn’t fully delivered yet.
5/13 The Star: Effort Rewarded
There is a real chance to shine today. This day provides ample opportunity to release the old and trust yourself and your progress. By all means, do a safety check before you do. But don’t let fear derail you. Any adjustments needed, go ahead and make them. Then suit up and fly. Venus and Saturn provide a strong safety net for you as you take the risk. This doesn’t let you off the hook for that safety check, though.
The more you understand that the Universe’s help doesn’t excuse you from adult assessment and engagement, the farther you fly. The Star promises that when you keep your feet on the ground (responsible behavior) while you reach for the stars, you get your wishes come true. The best part about that is once you know you can make dreams come true, you can’t ever unlearn that. It changes everything that comes after it.
So invest yourself in what matters most. Then give the Universe a chance to dazzle you. Remember, the Universe plays the long game. Which means don’t rush to decide if you’ve succeeded. Just keep refining your efforts and you’ll see the rewards, even in the darkest of circumstances. You can see best what shines brightest in the night sky.
5/14 Princess of Swords: Constant Mental Chatter
Sometimes we need support to still the mind. This card highlights the inner critic that reroutes us back to safe territory, no matter how uncomfortable the space may be. It’s genius at second-guessing, nitpicking, or criticizing, all in the name of protecting you or improving a situation. There may be good information buried behind unpleasant chatter, but you have to deliberately direct your mind to add good to the equation. Luckily, the Moon trine Chiron helps us do just that. Still, you have to manage it.
Notice the word is manage. Control isn’t helpful. Instead, reroute it. Insist that for everything you don’t like or don’t want, that it finds something you do like or want to go with it. Both are available. And it requires you giving the direction to go find it. By evening the Moon squares Uranus to help you get out of your own way. It may feel odd or awkward. But breathe into it. Change is like breaking in new shoes. You need to spend a little time in this space before it feels like a fit.
5/15 Six of Wands: Small Victories
This six is always an invitation to take stock of what went well and give yourself a pat on the back. Or if you prefer, go high five yourself in the mirror. There is progress today. As the Moon squares the Sun and then Jupiter, we have to factor in ego. When we don’t stop to give ourselves credit, we are at the mercy of looking for it from outside ourselves. Everyone needs affirmation; it’s part of our human makeup. Which is why today is a wonderful reminder to be sure you have a good system in place to speak well of you and to you about anything you do.
Those real celebrated moments balance what you may also need to do better, change, or even abandon. When we feel good about our real achievements, mistakes have a big enough container to hold them and don’t take on the wrong proportions. We face adjustments squarely, feel good about being responsible, and gain even more traction because the ground underfoot is solid. So choose what positively reinforces you and practice, practice, practice. You need a little recognition, so why not be sure you get it?
5/16 Nine of Wands: Cooperative Endings
This is the second nine in the Moon cycle, which highlights contentment and cooperative endings. Remember, we have to let go of the rung we’ve been on to get to the next one. Today, you get a little help to see what that is for you. It’s an individual thing as to whether action is required or just conscious recognition of where the cosmic timer is ringing. This means you have to feel what the right next step is for you. Mercury square to Pluto early tomorrow morning requires you to decide, not rely on an outside source.
Some signs may be subtle, while others are almost confrontational. There’s no need to get wrapped up in the celestial road sign. It’s better to take stock of what needs to end and include gratitude for all that it has been. When we are grateful, there is a biological reaction that supports change to help reduce stress. So include thanks wherever you can today. It costs almost nothing while bringing a big return on investment for the time and effort. It also provides fertile soil for what comes next. Much better than resisting how the messages come to you.
5/17 King of Pentacles: Right Use of Power
We start the early morning hours with Mercury square to Pluto. With tension between Mars and Jupiter along with a dissonance Mercury feels from Saturn, it’s easy to lose it today. And, it’s also possible to exercise impulse control. Although the world command is a better fit than control. While it’s easy and tempting to blame outside circumstances for provoking us, the choice in how we respond is always ours. This King reminds you that you have the power if you choose to use it.
Being the one who is ‘right’ is tempting, but ultimately not helpful when it creates a one up dynamic. The view that one is right or good always comes at the expense of someone else being wrong or bad. What else is possible? What if you knew you could connect with someone in any circumstance and bring about a better outcome? Does being right matter more than a sweet result? Dig in a bit here today. See what obstacles keep you from feeling good about achievements unless you measure your progress against someone falling behind. When you know that about yourself, you take ego wins off the table. Then there is room for so much more co creation. Now that is the right use of power…
5/18 Prince of Swords: Letting Go
Boundaries are on deck today. Those are where you know the edge of what you are and aren’t a match for in your world. It’s an ongoing project, like road work. Eventually, all heavily trafficked roads need repair or upkeep. Boundaries keep the flow moving. So examine where your yes is really a ‘should’ or a ‘have to’ versus an enthusiastic or wholehearted yes. The Prince of Swords helps us cut ties with what is no longer a fit. The Moon trine Pluto adds additional clarity to the decision. At the end of your life, you live the longest with the decisions you make day to day. Not the people you try to please or hold on to, not the jobs where you perform. Time to be very clear that what you do each day is a match for you and not a survival exercise in belonging.
The glory of that exercise is that as Venus and Uranus meet up alongside the Sun and Jupiter doing the same, new desires emerge. Authentically appealing invitations can get to us. We are no longer cluttered with the debris of partial agreement and half-hearted efforts. No big story is needed to let go. There are no victims or villains here. You’re just not a match for some people, places, and things anymore. See the good that you created in whatever you are releasing. Not to muddy the waters but rather to reassure yourself you made good choices. And some things end. There’s just a timer on them and when it goes off, it’s done. Celebrate, honor, grieve, rest, and most of all breathe. It’s a big day inside, whether the outside looks it or not. So give yourself credit and rest.
5/19 Six of Cups: Replacing Punishment
Six represents wholeness, and this particular one represents our childhood container, all the way back to the womb. Yesterday’s exercise in releasing puts us in an excellent position to give birth to a new reality, one that we are fully responsible for creating. What if everything, good and bad, from your childhood was the perfect information to help you select how you want to nurture the world you create from here? Mars conjoins the North Node shortly after opposing the Moon. It is a picture of our actions being independent of that umbilicus back to childhood patterns. What happens from here is yours to create. It’s a fresh slate, a blank page.
The key to remember is to have patience with yourself in this process. Let the trial and error be an exploration. Why would you want a punishing mentality in what you do each day? It has been proven that very few people do better under that construct. Most of us are far more productive with a loving acceptance of mistakes as human and a determination to improve as you go.
Play with your version of that and why not make it fun? Have a reward system built in for when you take risks. Have a dance you do to shake off disappointments or failures. Feel it and move through it. That’s your choice! The freedom in knowing that you can take a chance comes when you know you can’t be punished by your own thoughts over the outcome. Create a path forward you can’t wait to wake up to each day and know it’s possible…
5/20 Seven of Cups: Taming Imagination
Everything that man created on Earth began as an idea. This seven and the aspects today invite us to imagine a world beyond the stories of the past. In the last couple of days, you’ve let go and reframed how you approach the world. Today, it’s time to examine what stops you from either dreaming bigger or acting on those dreams. It’s not easy to realize that contrast is often the best teacher. We know what we don’t want much more easily than what we do. That’s the human condition. When the Seven of Cups appears, it’s the dilemma of intuitive gifts hung up at the starting gates waiting for the starter pistol.
This card highlights the challenge of our intuitive insights being held back, as if they’re waiting for the right moment to spring into action. When we envision our desires, we often fail to consider the various obstacles and uncertainties that may arise along the way. We tend to imagine either perfect outcomes or complete disasters. Today presents an opportunity to break down these visions into smaller, more manageable steps.
By envisioning both the best-case and worst-case scenarios, and then translating them into actionable steps, we can prepare ourselves for the unknown and perhaps even exceed our expectations. So, embrace this process with a sense of playfulness and curiosity. The true essence of this card lies in using your intuition to anticipate what lies ahead and then taking deliberate actions to shape your future. Give it a try today and observe the results…
5/21 Judgement: Beyond Good and Bad
We have quite the potent celestial mix today stirring the pot. It’s time to overcome our outdated protection mechanisms, which have us hunkered down in shelter instead of living. We often project our inner battle onto someone or something else and justify the fight with the ‘other’. Except it’s our internal struggle. What’s outside of us is merely a mirror to help us identify deeply ingrained conflicts that won’t fit neatly into boxes. Good people do bad things. Bad people have redeeming qualities. In the end, behavior really only changes based on direction from inside the person.
When we take command of our warring parts and own that the battle is inside of us, we are no longer at the mercy of it outside of us. It isn’t about choosing one part of you over another. Rather, it’s about deciding which idea, belief, feeling, or action is brought forward and which ones spend more time on the bench. It’s a waste of energy to judge yourself for what you feel or what drives you. Beyond good and bad, there’s the question of what will you do with it. The raw material is clay in your hands. You get to decide what you make of it when you put aside the label on what it started out being.
5/22 Nine of Cups: Make A wish
The Moon trines Saturn and the Sun trines Pluto today. It caps off this lunar cycle with a cosmic reward. Make a wish. To be alive is to wish for things. Make a wish and then learn how to expand your life as you engage in ways that make the dream possible. You now understand you aren’t a passive child waiting for the parent or Santa to make it happen. YOU are not only where the desire comes from, you are also the means by which it comes true. The magic is YOU. So make a wish and see where it takes you. Let it be an adventure to build a life around as you go forward.
